Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2018/11/26/breaking-boards-is-awfully-cut.html
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Who’s on first?
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Mistress of Bum-Fu!
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some people are made to create, not to destroy.
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She’s great at watching and duplicating. Skip the boards and start her on katas.
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Indeed. She shouldn’t actually be hitting things like heavy bags until her bones are a little more developed, but she could have perfect form by the time she’s eight or ten.
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Yeah, I started martial arts at 5 and didn’t break my first board until I was 8. Even then I don’t think I learned much from the experience until I was maybe 11.
If you’re not mentally ready to understand what you’re doing, you’re probably not learning anything from it. Clearly this girl didn’t arrive with a desire to break the board (maybe from seeing others do it or something), so it’s presumably just for parental enjoyment.
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They certainly don’t train black belts the way they used to.
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Huh. I started martial art mumble years ago and never broke a board. I guess it’s a Karate/TKD thing. She got what was appropriate at her stage of development. She followed instruction. She did something in front of a group of spectators. She showed willing and did her best to help and follow directions. And she had fun. That’s about all you can expect at that age. Her brain is clearly at the “copy this movement” stage. More abstract things like understanding pointing or associating the words with the action will take a bit longer. Plenty of time for that later.
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Ahhh, for a moment all is right with the world. Best unicorn chaser ever!
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That’s adorable! Especially the part at the end where she seems to be thinking “Oh, no, I broke it” and tries to put it back together.
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That makes sense, all that matters is that she has fun and stays safe.
And I guess it’s emphasized more in karate and taekwondo, but it’s common in many arts, including kung fu, as a discipline for training certain skills about follow-through, or recoil, or as a way to demonstrate that your strikes have proper form and good power (power, not strength, of course). I did kempo as my first martial art. For my black belt test they surprised me by telling me I had to do a speed break, that’s where the board is hanging free instead of held in place. That taught me a lot, actually.
Later on, my kung fu teacher trained in iron palm techniques, and would do things like only break the nth brick in a stack, for different values of n, to demonstrate control. He could also punch you lightly in the arm, and choose which side a bruise would form on.
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She seems way too young. By her copying & caring phase, I place her at around 2.5 to 3.5 yrs old age group. Why are they trying to make her break a board so badly? Nevertheless, as long as she looks like shes having fun, and is not harmed (soft bones etc), its kinda sweet 
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Just remember:
“Boards don’t hit back.”
The karate place my daughter goes to takes kids as young as 18 months. They do a lot of balance, coordination, and body awareness work at that age. Also story time, with morals about perseverance, respect, confidence, loyalty and even road safely.
My kiddo will be 4 in February and has been doing it for a little over a year. It’s so adorable to watch. Don’t know when, or even if, they break boards.
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